Modi offers AAP MP glass of water, but fails to break the ice with Oppn

Lawmaker, who was shouting slogans in the well of the House, felt uneasy and was apparently looking for water on the table of Parliament officials.

Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann speaks to the media in Jalandhar in this file photo. Mann has stood out in Parliament for his wit.(Pradeep Pandit/ HT photo)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday offered a glass of water to AAP member Bhagwant Mann, who was protesting in the Lok Sabha against the CBI raids on the Delhi secretariat where chief minister Arvind Kejriwal sits.

Mann, who was shouting slogans in the well of the House, felt uneasy and was apparently looking for water on the table of Parliament officials.

A smiling Modi offered him the glass of water kept on his table which the AAP member readily drank. The two exchanged smiles before Mann kept the glass on the table and Modi put the cover on it. Several BJP members thumped their desks at the gesture.

He, along with several Congress members, was protesting inside the well soon after the Speaker disallowed their notices of motions to adjourn the question hour on various issues, including the Arunachal Pradesh governor’s role in the disqualification of 14 dissident Congress MLAs.

The question hour continued amid the din.

The AAP member for Sangrur in Punjab had been showing a bunch of papers to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to attract her attention. At one point, the Speaker warned Mann and said his behaviour was “not good”.

Mann then moved to the other side of the well and was standing near the Prime Minister’s seat when he felt thirsty.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who could not see what had happened as several of her party members were standing in the well blocking her view, wanted to know what happened. She laughed after getting the details.

Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, seated in the front row along with Modi and other leaders, was also seen laughing.

While Mann and Sandhu Singh of AAP, as also some Congress members, were raising slogans in the well, another party member Dharmveer Gandhi was standing on his bench holding a placard demanding renaming of Chandigarh airport after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.